Slow Media Diet Day #17: Limping past the midway point

by Kirby, January 17th, 2010

Things fell apart a bit this week and I’m not sure that my lapses were the cause.

I’ve been working a lot for a couple weeks now. In many ways that’s made this challenge easier – I have little free time to kill — but I also have little energy left for anything but the most passive diversions. During these periods of end-of-the-day exhaustion, I started watching Philip Bloom’s video training and episodes of Mac Break Studio. I considered these fair game because they’re research for work I’m doing. But I soon found myself zoning out to the the Mac Break episodes, checking out a few other sorta related videos, and then watching an episode of a (very good) Monty Python documentary series. I got into that, thought ‘fuck it’ and watched all six episodes.

During alone times last week I often found one trivial interior dialogue would lead hyperlink-style to another and another and another. My mind was the most chaotic it’s been in quite some time and I don’t think watching videos before dozing off caused this.

Despite my lapses, I didn’t exactly go on a fast media binge. I didn’t touch my RSS feeds, emailing was minimal and I only did a little web surfing when research went astray. I think I’ve learned my problems with focus and neurotic thought cycles aren’t just the result of my immoderate fondness of fast media. I’ll explore this more in the next update.

In other news, I did an interview with the BBC about this project. My thanks to Jamilah Knowles.

Things I’m Reading

Good’s Slow Issue

The Attention Revolution, B. Alan Wallace

  • Share/Bookmark
  • John Woods
    "During alone times last week I often found one trivial interior dialogue would lead hyperlink-style to another and another and another. My mind was the most chaotic it’s been in quite some time and I don’t think watching videos before dozing off caused this."

    In meditation, we try to focus only on the present moment and our breathing in and out. When we consciously try to NOT let the mind wander, it becomes immediately apparent just how ubiquitous this hyperlink-style interior dialogue is - how often we are carried off into the past or the future or fantasy. It happens throughout our day, but we're usually unaware of it because of the myriad external distractions available to us. Perhaps your removal of some of these external distractions has made you more aware of the perpetually distracted state of the human mind?
  • Hey Johnny.

    I have experienced that in the past, but I don't think that's what happened last week. I'm fairly aware of my mental cycles and I know my mind is generally filled with inane chattering, but last week things got unusually agitated during a period of moderation.

    How long have you been meditating?
blog comments powered by Disqus